Facebook launches Olympics page; cannot advertise on it

Another web service to get on the Olympics squad is Facebook. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched an Olympics page on the social network at an event in London today, which was attended by 1992 gold medalist, Boris Becker. However, representatives from the International Olympic Committee have made it certain that Facebook is not to cash in on the Olympics page and cannot carry advertisements on any game-themed pages. Head of International Business Development at Facebook, Christian Hernandez was quoted saying that Facebook will not be running adverts against the Olympic pages. He went on to compare the Facebook pages to a stadium, a clean venue with no advertising visible inside the stadium. The Facebook pages will only carry the Olympic Games logo and the London 2012 logo. While many other companies have paid a lot of money to carry the Olympics logo in any capacity, Hernandez stresses that the relationship with Facebook is a non-commercial one.

Will you like the Facebook Olympics page?

The Facebook Olympics page is essentially a hub to take you to other Facebook pages of not only the athletes, but also the teams from various countries as well as the sports. For instance, you can be taken to the pages of LeBron James and Krishna Poonia, as well as the Mexican and Portuguese Olympic teams and also Taekwondo and Table Tennis. You have the option of liking these pages from the main Olympic page as well. The sports pages will go to the pages of the official organizations that regulate the sport for the Olympics. For example, clicking on Taekwondo on the Olympics page will take you to the Facebook page of the World Taekwondo Federation, the organization that regulates Olympic Taekwondo. The idea behind the Olympic Facebook page is to provide a hub for interactivity between sports fans and their favourite athletes, teams and sports.

Samsung had also launched an Olympic portal on Facebook, but that was limited to the team from the United States. The idea behind that application, called the Olympic Genome Project was to connect users to the athletes based on what they had in common. For instance, if an athlete went to the same college as you or likes one or more of the same things you do on Facebook, then the app would show you how you are connected. Another way you can connect with the Olympics online, especially if you're not going to make it to London, is by checking out the games live in HD on YouTube. The games will run from the 27th of July till the 12th of August and sports fans in 64 territories, including India, will be able to catch the events as they happen on YouTube, as well as highlight clips. The streaming will take place on the International Olympic Committee's YouTube page and will comprise 11 different, simultaneous broadcasts.

News sources